Posts Tagged ‘best practices’

The CTE: Learning that works for America ™ branding initiative is gaining traction across the nation. States have made significant strides in implementing the new brand by using national and state resources, reported State Directors at the recent Fall Meeting in Baltimore.

Find examples of states' CTE: Learning that works for America branding initiatives on NASDCTEc's Members-Only section of the Web site.

At the NASDCTEc Fall Meeting, an annual event in which CTE leaders convene, State Directors presented on their state-led efforts to launch the new brand. Their work involved the kick off of roll-out events, adoption of the new logo, re-design of their Web pages, re-branding resources, and more. States such as Ohio, Oregon, Virginia, Minnesota and

New Jersey have made significant headway in introducing the new brand in

to their state and dedicating strategies to serving as true stewards of the brand.

While the CTE: Learning that works for America ™ campaign can only be a true national effort if all states take on their role to support the brand.

These states’ best practices items can be found exclusively in NASDCTEc’s Web site’s Members-Only section as a resource for members:

The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) and NASDCTEc are partnering to create a new resource, the CTE Monthly newsletter, which aims to keep Congress and the Career Technical Education (CTE) community informed about CTE events, data, best practices and student success stories.

The newsletter will be available each month on our website, and will also be distributed monthly to members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Congressional Career and Technical Education Caucus.

The September edition of CTE Monthly highlights the Manufacturing Career Cluster, the East Valley Institute of Technology in Mesa, Arizona, and a summary of a recent report with relevance to CTE.

Career Technical Education (CTE) is one education delivery mechanism that is redefining the mission of America’s high schools, according to a recent paper.

In the paper, the Educational Testing Service (ETS), a non-profit organization that creates research-based assessments, lauds NASDCTEc’s new vision for CTE as “a strong indication of the continuing efforts to improve CTE.” Specifically, the authors wrote about the State Directors’ intent to ensure that standards are internationally-benchmarked and a rigorous blend of academic and technical content. While the authors convey that more work is needed to improve CTE, they also support CTE’s integrated approach and opportunities for applied and academic learning.

The tremendous potential of CTE in America is evident when looking at the results shown by CTE internationally. For example, “Twenty-four percent of Japan’s secondary students are in vocational programs, as are 29 percent in Korea, and a whopping 72 percent in the United Kingdom. All of these countries had higher average scores in eighth-grade mathematics than did the United States in the latest TIMSS (Trends in Mathematics and Science Study) assessment.”

While educators in the United States have looked to high-scoring countries for examples of educational excellence, the report says, they often overlook a key point – these countries are using CTE approaches. The results are impressive: “Analysis of international data found that nations enrolling a large proportion of upper-secondary students in vocational programs have significantly higher school attendance rates and upper-secondary completion rates.” Still, the report points out, all students need more guidance and career counseling to help navigate options and prepare for college and careers.